


Still Playing After All This Time

by DesertVixen



Category: Wreck-It Ralph (Movies)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-16
Updated: 2019-11-16
Packaged: 2021-01-31 17:03:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21449662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: Stan Litwak likes to play arcade games after he locks the doors
Comments: 10
Kudos: 31
Collections: 2019 Disney Animated Movie Exchange (DAM Exchange)





	Still Playing After All This Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [silveradept](https://archiveofourown.org/users/silveradept/gifts).

Sometimes at night, when the doors were locked at Litwak’s Family Fun Center and Arcade, Stan Litwak played _Fix-It Felix Jr._ It was his way to relax after a long day before he tackled mind-numbing paperwork.

_Fix-It Felix Jr._– in great shape for its age - was like an old friend. Games might come and go according to trends, but some of them would always have a place. He had resisted adding too many of the lottery games that simply relied on luck. 

Stan Litwak had started over thirty years ago with the arcade, back when video games took quarters and everything was simpler. He’d expanded, bringing in new games and trading out old games as their popularity waned. There were other activities as well – air hockey and foosball and Skee-Ball – but the draw at Litwak’s was the video games.

_Fix-It Felix Jr._ was his favorite. He’d opened with it and _Pac-Man_, with a few others – but these two machines were the only originals remaining. There had been a _Ms. Pac-Man_ machine as well, but he had since replaced it with the combo _Ms. Pac-Man/Galaga_ machine to save some space. Either of the _Pac-Man_ games was a good way to zone out, clearing maze after maze, but Stan simply liked _Fix-It Felix Jr._ better – better cutscenes, better story, and better graphics. He felt a real kinship with Felix, always being called on to solve problems in the arcade. 

He’d been a little worried when the game had malfunctioned awhile ago, afraid he might have to remove the game from the arcade. He couldn’t imagine not having it there. Luckily whatever problem the game had been having, it had fixed itself. Sometimes they did that, and sometimes they had to be put out to pasture, like _Turbo Time_, another original game. He’d been a little sad about it, since he had a soft spot for Turbo and his catch phrase “Turbotastic!” 

He had noticed, however, that there were some changes in the game. He’d opened the arcade because he loved playing games, was good at playing games. He’d spent a lot of time playing _Fix-It Felix Jr._, and had been pretty sure that he had seen everything the game had to offer. 

Until Q*bert had hopped on the screen. He hadn’t seen Q*bert in years – that had been one of the original games he had needed to replace when the machine went wonky. Not enough people were playing the game to justify the repair, especially when the machine had been broken for a week before anyone noticed. He hadn’t been happy about it, but the arcade was a business. 

Kids these days didn’t want to jump on cubes to make them change colors – they wanted to race cars and shoot things and dance. There were some slower-paced newer games that kids did play, like _Fruit Ninja_, but for the most part they wanted speed and explosions. Adults patronized the arcade as well – mostly parents killing time while their kids killed bugs in _Hero’s Duty_ \- but Stan did have to cater to his primary audience. Q*bert just didn’t entertain them.__

_ _Stan had watched Q*bert jump from window to window, blocking Felix from getting to the power-up pie, and wondered if the game was glitching again. It didn’t seem to be hurting anything, though, and it was good to see the little guy again. It wasn’t his fault that video games had changed and left him behind. _ _

_ _Change was just part of the business. _ _

_ _Technology kept improving. For example, Stan had just installed card readers on all of the games, even the older ones, so that he could retire the cranky token machine. Instead of using money, Litwak’s customers could load funds onto the cards, and then swipe them on the games. He was able to offer bonuses with the cards – load twenty dollars and get an extra five dollars – and he had noticed that people seemed to run through the funds on the card faster. True, sometimes he missed watching the kids wander the arcade carrying their cups full of tokens, but the cards were the wave of the future. They were easier to keep track of, and the kids liked being able to pick designs for their cards. Parents seemed to like them as well, especially since they could load and monitor them from the Internet._ _

_ _He was still getting used to the Internet. Computer games had never really been his thing, and after spending a day around the machines, he wanted a little peace and quiet. But the computers could be useful, he had to admit. Paying bill certainly was, and it was much easier to shop for stuff on Amazon._ _

_ _Some of the new games were incredible – the sharp graphics and realistic sounds. The driving and racing games in particular impressed him, although they took up quite a bit more room now. _Out Run_ and _RoadBlasters_ had been fun in their day, but he had to admit the _Mario Kart_ racing games beat them._ _

_ _Stan was also a big fan of the _Dance Dance Revolution_ game, more than he had thought he would be. Every now and then he would jump on with a kid who didn’t have a second player, and they always seemed surprised that the old man had some moves. He had even broken down and bought DDR for his Wii at home._ _

_ _That was something that had definitely changed the arcade. When he’d first opened Litwak’s Family Fun Center and Arcade, it had been one of the few places in town that people could play games. The Pizza Planet a few doors down had a sit-down _Pac-Man_ game, but that was about it. Even if their families could afford an Atari or Nintendo, there weren’t very many choices of games. Stan was a Nintendo guy himself, and while he had enjoyed _Super Mario_ and _Duck Hunt_, they couldn’t compare to games now. The gun they had used to play _Duck Hunt_ had seemed super cool then, but compared to some of the controllers and accessories available now, there was simply no competition._ _

_ _Of course, Stan thought as he walked over to _Fix-It Felix Jr._ with his master card in hand, there was also the appeal of all things retro. He’d always had returning customers who played _Fix-It Felix Jr._ and _Ms. Pac-Man_, who had been playing it the entire time the arcade had been open, but Stan loved it when he saw a young kid go up to the game and play for the first time. _ _

_ _As long as the game could be played, Stan thought, Felix and his crowd would have a place at Litwak’s Family Fun Center._ _

_ _He swiped the card – one benefit of owning the place was playing for free – and wondered if he would see Q*bert this time.  
._ _

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! I enjoyed tackling Stan and his relationship to games, and some of the changes.


End file.
